Year: 2007

What Ezra Said

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Ezra Klein answers the question of why liberal war hawks are lumped with the Neocons.

The answer is, simply enough, that they are indistinguishable from Neocons so long as they continue to enable Bush’s war.

I do not care what the internal machinations are of wankers like Richard Cohen’s mind. I care about the actions of wankers like Richard Cohen, and they are providing as least much aid and comfort to the supporters of Bush’s war as people like William Kristal.

Cohen may not, personally, think like Bill Kristol. But he certainly writes like him. “Neocon, for many, has become shorthand for neocon-Zionist conspiracy,” he says, naming no names, and instead offering a simple, generalized accusation of anti-semitism against all those who question the neoconservatives. “Baghdad is closer to Sarajevo than the left has allowed,” he writes, obliterating the difference between a bombing campaign undertaken to end an ongoing genocide and a ground invasion undertaken to unearth weapons that didn’t exist, overturn a regime we couldn’t replace, and forcibly impose a system of governance that lacked foundations. “MoveOn.org is the Petraeus-insulting face of never-set-foot-in-a-war-zone liberalism,” he scoffs, having never, himself, fought in a war, but nevertheless adopting the authority of those who have.

These are not arguments. They are smears. They are attacks aimed at degrading the credibility, rather than the beliefs, of the coalition that opposes the Iraq War. And in intent and effect, they are indistinguishable from Bill Kristol’s worst columns, save for the possibility that they are more effective, because they ostensibly come from within the Left, rather than outside of it.

The Greatest Generation Condemns the Torture Generation

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Keep in mind that these are the guys who interrogated, and actually got useful information out of, captured senior Axis figures.

“We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture,” said Henry Kolm, 90, an MIT physicist who had been assigned to play chess in Germany with Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess.

Blunt criticism of modern enemy interrogations was a common refrain at the ceremonies held beside the Potomac River near Alexandria. Across the river, President Bush defended his administration’s methods of detaining and questioning terrorism suspects during an Oval Office appearance.

They to a man condemned the tactics espoused by Bush and His Evil Minions™

Dem Leadership Wimps Out on US Attorney Scandal

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Bush and His Evil Minions™ are still stonewalling on the US Attorney scandal, but the house leadership is refusing to schedule a contempt vote.

I know that they think that they are playing safe, but this sort of investigation is precisely why Democrats were elected in 2006.

Cowardice is a losing proposition, particularly for Democrats, where the Republicans have used this as a club to beat them for years.

A Great Takedown of Ayn Rand

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Contained in a book review of Alan Greenspan’s new book, of all things. It’s a wonderfully snarky review, in the tradition of Rex Reed.

It wasn’t a rhetorical question, apparently. This was in the late 1950s. By then, Rand had published her two thick, preposterous novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and stood poised on the brink of international stardom. Her creepy philosophy of Objectivism, placing the self at the center of the moral universe, was being enthusiastically embraced, as it still is, by tens of thousands of pimply teenage boys in the dreamy moments between fits of social insecurity and furious bouts of masturbation. As her cultish fame spread, Rand wanted to keep tabs on her most intimate acolytes. Of these Greenspan was the most promising and, by all appearances, the most normal. Which worried her.

He had, for example, a life; most of the members of the Collective–the name her dozen closest followers attached to themselves–did not, devoting themselves to her welfare exclusively. Greenspan was making good money, soon to be great money, as a savvy economics consultant. He lunched with bond traders, corporate leaders, even titans of industry, real-life versions of the planet-girding capitalists Rand fantasized about and invented for her books. On Saturday nights Greenspan, then in his early thirties, would gather with his fellow Collective members in Rand’s dim, shuttered apartment in midtown Manhattan (she kept the windows closed and the blinds drawn for many years, after one of her beloved cats tumbled tragically to its death). There in the grim presence of their idol they would sit on folding chairs and release expletives of thrilled admiration as her writings were read aloud. One memoir from the Collective, My Years with Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden, shows that even then Greenspan’s mode of communication was Greenspanian.

“Ayn,” Alan would say, overcome by some Randian insight, “upon reading this, one tends to feel exhilarated!”

heh. Spot on.

All emphasis mine.

Talking Points Memo | Bishop: No communion for Giuliani

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Well, the right wing jerk who refused communion for Kerry is refusing it for Giuliani too, though it’s not likely that this will effect him much. The thrice married candidate for president of 911 isn’t much of a church goer, and this only covers the St. Louis area.

That beings said, I think that this sort of stuff does put the archdiocese 501(c)3 status at risk, or at least it should.

Baker is Right: IP is Protectionism

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Dean Baker makes the excellent point that economists who rail against any restriction on trade are nowhere to be found when the trade barrier supports movie and record executives or pharma.

We need to recognize the fact that IP is a restriction on free trade, and to understand that IP protections need to be balanced against the virtues of free trade. Conversely, this also means that the virtues of free trade need to be balanced against negative societal impact more generally.

Help Stop the White Collar Crime Enabling Act

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It looks like Congress is well on its way to crippling prosecution of white collar crime.

It will remove tools from the investigators’ arsenal that are crucial to getting information and finding hidden assets.

I would also add that while the targets of such probes find the tactics coercive, they are completely in line with what prosecutors do with other crimes, and I support them as long as they can be used against a burglar or a corner street dealer.

The law is not just for brown people.

A Perfect Metaphor for Iraq

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At the US embassy in Baghdad, nothing works, not even the fire sprinkler system.

Let’s see, constructed by forced labor by bush cronies, and they did not follow the drawings?

To quote Claude Rains

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!

OK, Maybe I Was Wrong About the Nature of the Israeli Airstrike on Syria

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According to this ABC News report, the US requested, and got, a delay in the attack because they were concerned about the accuracy of the Israeli intelligence showing an ambitious nuclear facility, and possible repercussions.

I may have been wrong in my previous assessment that it was not a nuclear facility, but as the sources could for the ABC story could be political appointees, I still lean against it being a nuclear facility.

Simply put, Syria does not have the infrastructure to even begin any sort of nuclear weapons development.

As to the sourcing, it could be some mid-level intelligence professionals, or some politically appointed yahoo like John Bolton.

Senate My Approve no FEC Nominations Over Voter Suppression Criminal

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Hans von Spakovsky, the Bush administration’s point man on illegal voter suppression at the DoJ, has been nominated as a member of the Federal Elections Commission.

Democratic senators, with Feingold and Obama taking the lead, have said that he is not acceptable, and the Republicans are blocking any vote on any other nominees unless they are all voted on at once.

Bush could theoretically make recess appointments, but he’s already cut a deal with Harry Reid not to make recess appointments after Reid announced plans to keep the Senate in session with local members to prevent this.

The problem is that quorum for the FEC is 4, and without these approvals, they would have only two members.

Fred Wertheimer, states it thusly:

Either one of those scenarios is “fraught with potential danger,” Fred Wertheimer, the executive director of the nonpartisan watchdog Democracy 21, told me.

If the FEC were crippled, that would be bad, he said, creating a situation where outside groups funded by millionaires (like the Swift Boat Vets) could run amok in a campaign year. “That would be a license to steal and to completely ignore campaign finance laws.”

But if the commission were stocked with the president’s appointees, that would be much worse. “You could have an agency that leaves one party free to do whatever it wants, while raising concerns that the other party is breaking the law.

“The whole fight at the Justice Department over the firing of the U.S. attorneys has arisen over misusing the criminal justice system in order to influence political results…. Now, if you don’t get some legitimate form of a commission ready to go for the 2008 election, you face the same danger, except with far greater stakes involved, mainly the presidency, the Senate and House — who wins and who loses.”

I tend to agree that no FEC would be worse than an FEC run by Bush and His Evil Minions&trade.

At least both sides would have an equal opportunity to break laws with no FEC.

One note, look at his picture: , he really does look like those photographs of those 30 something SS camp guards one sees in history books.

Topps Meat Closes its Doors Because of Recall

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The massive recall of ground beef has forced Topps Meat to shut down.

To quote my 2nd favorite movie of all time, John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing,

Garry: The generator’s gone.
MacReady: Any way we can we fix it?
Garry: It’s “gone”, MacReady.

They aren’t shutting their doors to reopen later after a cleanup, they have just shut down completely. They will be liquidating.

In some ways, the regulations that the Bush administration has been systematically dismantrling protect both the companies and the consumers out there. Had a more aggressive FDA or Agriculture Department caught this sooner, Topps would probably still be around.